15:1 Samuel also said unto Saul, The LORD sent me to anoint thee
[to be] king over his people, over Israel: now therefore
a hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the LORD.
(a) Because he has preferred you to this honour, you are
bound to obey him.
15:3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they
have, and spare them not; but b slay both man and woman,
infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
(b) That this might be an example of God's vengeance
against those who deal cruelly with his people.
15:6 And Saul said unto the c Kenites, Go, depart, get you
down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with
them: for ye shewed d kindness to all the children of
Israel, when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites
departed from among the Amalekites.
(c) Which were the posterity of Jethro, Moses father in
law.
(d) For Jethro came to visit them, and gave them good
counsel, (Ex 18:19).
15:11 It e repenteth me that I have set up Saul [to be] king:
for he is turned back from following me, and hath not
performed my commandments. And it grieved Samuel; and he
cried unto the LORD all night.
(e) God in his eternal counsel never changes or repents,
as in (1Sa 15:29), though he seems to us to repent
when anything goes contrary to his temporal election.
15:13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed
[be] thou of the LORD: I have performed the f
commandment of the LORD.
(f) This is the nature of hypocrites to be impudent
against the truth, to condemn others, and justify
themselves.
15:17 And Samuel said, When thou [wast] g little in thine own
sight, [wast] thou not [made] the head of the tribes of
Israel, and the LORD anointed thee king over Israel?
15:20 And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, h I have obeyed the
voice of the LORD, and have gone the way which the LORD
sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and
have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
(i) He stands most impudently in his own defence both
against God and his own conscience.
15:23 For i rebellion [is as] the sin of witchcraft, and
stubbornness [is as] iniquity and idolatry. Because thou
hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected
thee from [being] king.
(i) God hates nothing more than the disobedience of his
commandment, even though the intent seems good to man.
15:25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my k sin, and turn
again with me, that I may worship the LORD.
(k) This was not true repentance, but deceit out of fear
for the loss of his kingdom.
15:28 And Samuel said unto him, The LORD hath rent the kingdom
of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a l
neighbour of thine, [that is] better than thou.
(l) That is, to David.
15:29 And also the m Strength of Israel will not lie nor
repent: for he [is] not a man, that he should repent.
(m) Meaning God, who maintains and prefers his own.
15:32 Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of
the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And
Agag said, Surely the n bitterness of death is past.
(n) He expected nothing less than death, or as some write,
he passed not for death.
15:34 Then Samuel went to o Ramah; and Saul went up to his
house to Gibeah of Saul.
(o) Where his house was.
15:35 And Samuel came no more to p see Saul until the day of
his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul: and the
LORD q repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.
(p) Though Saul came where Samuel was, (1Sa 19:22).
(q) As in (1Sa 15:11).
